Château de Versailles

When the Château de Versailles was built, Versailles was a country village. Today, it is a suburb about 20km south west of Paris. The Château was originally a hunting lodge, built in 1624, by Louis XIII. It was expanded by Louis XIV at the beginning of 1669. It later became the official residence of the Kings of France and the court, the centre of political power from 1682 until 1790. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but also as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy.

Refusing to wait in line in the cold outside for entrance tickets, we stood gazing at Le Château de Versailles from the outside...

at all the tourists,

posing in front of a fountain I camouflaged into,

and nevertheless, also at some nice old architecture...

and beautiful gardens.

More about the Château de Versailles here.